NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 876, 23 July 1910, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The Attorney-General's reply to the Powelka deputation yesterday was properly emphatic, and could leave no room for doubt as to his views regarding Me. Justice Coopek's judgment. A great many unwise things have been said and published concerning the penalty imposed on the criminal Powelka, and some very improper and quite unjustifiable criticism has been passed on the learned Judge who presided at the trials. We have held throughout, and we have not the slightest doubt that the great bulk of the public have been in entire agreement with that view, that Me. Justice Coopee was in a far better position than anyone else to form a true estimate of what the public interest demanded in this case. That he performed what must necessarily have been a difficult and \ painful duty with wisdom and sound judgment was amply proved by the facts placed before the deputation yesterday by Dr. Findlay. We' must compliment the Attorney-General on the manner in which he dealt with the request of the deputation.

To-day's cable messages bring further news of labour troubles in America, Canada, Australia, and Great Britain, it is, of course, only a coincidence that all four countries snould be simultaneously aftlicted by serious strikes, and tnat in three.of them the strikers are railway employees, binco yesterday's messages were printed the British strike nas been settled, but brief as it was, it caused an extraordinary dislocation of traffic and industry, its ettecta being immediately felt in the ports and in the coal-mines. This strike arose out of quite a trifling incident, the dismissal of a shunter, a fact that sliuws not only the growing readiness of the workers to exercise their power on small provocation, but also the grave importance of resistance to any attempt at unfair Labour domination that can only be injurious to the peace and soundness of industry. In Canada the railway strike is having painful results, and inflicting hardships .on the whole nation. Cattle are starving in truckloads and perishable goods are rotting, while in Montreal and other cities a shortage of milk and meat is feared. Strikes of such magnitude us this are harmful to nobudy so inuch as the workers, whose dependence upon psaceful and progressive industry is greater than that of any other class. Unhappily, it is to be feared that this fact, as exhibited in its unhappy 'tanits, vill not for a long time obtain a sufficiently general recognition to make strikes impossible. It is doubtful whether, in the long run, any strike has been of real benefit to the workers—whether any supposed benefits. . would not have come just as soon from the normal ' increase of the fruits of improved industrial methods. It is quite certain that none of the strikes under notice would have been prevented by an Arbitration Act on the New Zealand model. They only serve to strengthen the case for voluntary arbitration.

The unpleasant exhibition of bitter feeling given in the House of Representatives last evening by the member for Lyttelton in the course of his. references to The Dominion afforded a.singularly effective confirmation of the views which he was so violently assailing. We have on several occasions directed attention to the lowered tone of the House of Representatives—to the absence of many of the old-time courtesies of debate; to a strain of coarseness, at times amounting even to studied rudeness, in the frequency and nature of the interjections from a certain section of the' House. In his attack on The Dominion for its criticisms of the Legislature, Me. Laurenson gave an admirable Hlustration of our point. To abuse and decry the paper ho disliked, and under the strictures r>f which he was apparently smarting, quite failed to relievo the bitterness of his resentment. He pursued his attack to the shareholders of the journal; he drew on his imagination and poured ridicule on their age, their disappointments; their families—or lack of families would probably be a more correct interpretation of his remarks. Even the dead could not be spared. It was altogether a sorry exhibition, and it would be quite out of place to treat with seriousness so intemperate an outWhen we recall the extraordinary views expressed by Mr. Laurenson on what the . Civil Service Commission of Inquiry described as the "gross improprieties" in the Valuation Department—views which provoked a stern protest even from members on his own side of the House—it is not surprising that we experience satisfaction at learning that, judged by the standard of ethics of the member for Lyttelton, we do not find favour in his sight..